One of key components of any high school science course is performing experiments and writing lap reports once the experiment is completed. A lab report contains several section such as a purpose, hypothesis, theory, conclusion, and a procedure. For this standards-based lesson, students were asked to write a procedure using a familiar material, Legos. The significant part of this activity was to write a clear, specific, and thorough procedure so another pair of students could reconstruct the Lego figure. The students were not evaluated on whether or not they could reconstruct the figure, but they were graded on the procedure they wrote and the revisions they made to their own procedure of the procedure of another student.
The standard used for this lesson is W-10-6.2, which asks students to informally write and organize ideas and concepts by selecting appropriate and relevant information (excluding extraneous details) to set context. In normal terms, this is just saying that students can write a procedure or another form of instructional piece such as a narrative procedure. This assignment had multiple objectives to correlate with the different sections of the task. First, students are expected to write a specific and organized procedure. In order to have a successful procedure it must be detailed, assuming the reader does not have any prior knowledge about the task he or she is trying to accomplish, and organized, usually in numbered steps. The second objective was that, once students switched procedures, the students could follow and evaluate the new procedure. A worksheet was provided with questions asking the pros and cons of the procedure a pair of students received. The final objective for the assignment was to identify the important factors that are necessary for writing an accurate procedure. The teacher discusses these factors at the beginning of class and then reiterates them at the end since the students could better reflect on those factors after their experience with using procedures with Legos.
II. The Learning Environment
In order for a large assignment to work efficiently, a specific classroom layout and environment must be set up. Since this is a scientific assignment, the classroom is set up of several fixed lab tables. The tables seat two students and are spaced out evenly throughout the room. The students are randomly placed in pairs for this assignment and are required to work together to build an object from the Legos and write up a collaborative procedure. The pairs then switched procedures to see if the other pair could reconstruct the Lego model and they evaluated the procedure they were given, highlighting upon what aspects were useful and which aspects could use improvement. Prior to the class, the teacher put examples of other procedures up on an overhead and asked students what they noticed about them such as diagrams, steps, and emphasis on important steps. The groups were then provided with an evaluation worksheet for the procedure they received as well as a blank piece of paper to write their own procedure on. Finally, they were given a bag of Legos to construct with.
There was a large amount of interaction between the students and the teacher at the start of the activity and at the end, but in the middle, the students collaborated with each other while the teacher walked around the room to help out struggling groups. The teacher asked several questions at the start of the activity such as "where are procedures used," and "what kinds of procedures are there?" Some students called out some answers, she doesn't seem to require them to raise their hands, and when nobody would participate, she would randomly call on a student. She also asked general questions such as "raise your hand if you've used Legos before," where all students can participate at once in answering the generic question. After the introduction, the pairs of students worked together to write their procedure and then follow another one when they were completed. Some students struggled and the teacher tended to their questions. She did not answer the questions directly, but instead asked them some questions in return to help them along. At the end of the class, the teacher asked the class questions about the assignment, referring to the third objective which was to assess if the students gained an understanding about the components of a useful and accurate procedure.
III. The Learning Activities
This lesson is based around several structured activities that have the students creating structures, explaining themselves, following directions and giving feedback to their peers and teacher.
The opening activity is a teacher led discussion about writing procedures. She engages the students by asking them what is important when writing a procedure. In order for a procedure to be considered 'good' it must be clear and easy to follow. Including a materials list, writing the procedure in numbered steps, providing illustrations and emphasizing important steps are the key elements to a straightforward procedure. The teacher goes on to explain the following steps in the activities. She makes sure to focus on the fact that the students will not be graded on how well they replicate the structure, but how well the wrote their own procedure and how well the evaluate the other team's procedure.
The second activity is the first phase of construction. The students are divided into groups of two. Then each pair is given a bag of Legos and asked to build a simple structure. As they build their structure they are encouraged to write their instructions as specific as possible. They must keep in mind the points made in the opening discussion about clear procedure writing. The pairs of students must use all the Legos provided in their bag, and they must keep their work secret from the other students. The end result of this activity is to build a structure and to provide very clear and specific instructions so that the next group can replicate it. The students are given a time limit of 20-30 minutes so that they will not go off-task by creating too elaborate of a structure. After this part is over, the finished structure is placed in a Ziploc bag and given to the teacher until it is needed at the end of the activity.
The third part of the activity is when each pair must try to replicate the structure made by the other team, using the procedure that was written earlier. In this second phase of construction, each pair of students receives an identical bag of Legos that was provided to the team whose procedure they are evaluating. After following the procedure they are provided, they students give the finished structure to the teacher to see if it is the same as the original. If the structures match on the first attempt the pair goes on to write an evaluation of the procedure they followed. They are encouraged to give constructive criticism to the first team. If the first attempt of making an identical structure fails the students are given one more try. If after the second try the structures still don’t match they are allowed to see and compare the original structure to their own. Then they may complete the evaluation.
The closing activity involves a teacher led discussion about what made each procedure successful, and what made it more difficult to follow. After this discussion the students are to help the teacher make a list of rules that are needed to produce a coherent procedure. The list will be given back to the students to keep as a reference for when they will write future procedures.struct
Here is an example of a structure that meets proficiency (Activity 2) and part of an evaluation (Activity 3) that meets proficiency.
As you can see this structure is depicted in drawing with specific regard to colors. This drawing of the structure does not go so far as to depict exactly what size Legos are used, except for at the tail of the giraffe. However, these details are provided in the step by step directions.
IV. Personal Reflections (Yours)
After watching the videos and reading through the various aspects of the assignment, I think the project is a great to provide students with an introduction on writing procedures. Legos are a material that most students are accustomed to using and most students can enjoy using them too. This assignment is more practical than having the students write a procedure on how to make something overly common such as a sandwich since each pair of students created their own unique Lego design. They had to specify colors, shapes, and positioning, which demands diagrams to be successful. Looking over the student artifacts, the group that exceeded the standard had a thorough, specific, and detailed procedure with plenty of diagrams. I do find it odd that this assignment is used for high school students though. I started writing laboratory procedures when I was in seventh grade. I think this assignment might be suitable for the middle school level and I think middle school students might be a bit more motivated to do it as well. - mattguertin
I believe that this lesson was a very effective way to teach how to write procedures. Trying to explain to science students in high school how to write a procedure is a task that demands attention to keeping the students engaged as well as keeping their mind on the goal. I think that the choice of using Legos was very effective because Legos are tangible, familiar and a safe object for students to work with. This way the students could focus on writing directions while not getting caught up with unknown lab equipment or being bored to tears with writing about how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. - JessicaLopes
Writing a Procedure: Lego Activity
Authors:
1. Matthew Guertin2. Jessica Lopes
I. Standard Benchmark(s) and Learning Objective:
One of key components of any high school science course is performing experiments and writing lap reports once the experiment is completed. A lab report contains several section such as a purpose, hypothesis, theory, conclusion, and a procedure. For this standards-based lesson, students were asked to write a procedure using a familiar material, Legos. The significant part of this activity was to write a clear, specific, and thorough procedure so another pair of students could reconstruct the Lego figure. The students were not evaluated on whether or not they could reconstruct the figure, but they were graded on the procedure they wrote and the revisions they made to their own procedure of the procedure of another student.
The standard used for this lesson is W-10-6.2, which asks students to informally write and organize ideas and concepts by selecting appropriate and relevant information (excluding extraneous details) to set context. In normal terms, this is just saying that students can write a procedure or another form of instructional piece such as a narrative procedure. This assignment had multiple objectives to correlate with the different sections of the task. First, students are expected to write a specific and organized procedure. In order to have a successful procedure it must be detailed, assuming the reader does not have any prior knowledge about the task he or she is trying to accomplish, and organized, usually in numbered steps. The second objective was that, once students switched procedures, the students could follow and evaluate the new procedure. A worksheet was provided with questions asking the pros and cons of the procedure a pair of students received. The final objective for the assignment was to identify the important factors that are necessary for writing an accurate procedure. The teacher discusses these factors at the beginning of class and then reiterates them at the end since the students could better reflect on those factors after their experience with using procedures with Legos.
II. The Learning Environment
In order for a large assignment to work efficiently, a specific classroom layout and environment must be set up. Since this is a scientific assignment, the classroom is set up of several fixed lab tables. The tables seat two students and are spaced out evenly throughout the room. The students are randomly placed in pairs for this assignment and are required to work together to build an object from the Legos and write up a collaborative procedure. The pairs then switched procedures to see if the other pair could reconstruct the Lego model and they evaluated the procedure they were given, highlighting upon what aspects were useful and which aspects could use improvement. Prior to the class, the teacher put examples of other procedures up on an overhead and asked students what they noticed about them such as diagrams, steps, and emphasis on important steps. The groups were then provided with an evaluation worksheet for the procedure they received as well as a blank piece of paper to write their own procedure on. Finally, they were given a bag of Legos to construct with.
There was a large amount of interaction between the students and the teacher at the start of the activity and at the end, but in the middle, the students collaborated with each other while the teacher walked around the room to help out struggling groups. The teacher asked several questions at the start of the activity such as "where are procedures used," and "what kinds of procedures are there?" Some students called out some answers, she doesn't seem to require them to raise their hands, and when nobody would participate, she would randomly call on a student. She also asked general questions such as "raise your hand if you've used Legos before," where all students can participate at once in answering the generic question. After the introduction, the pairs of students worked together to write their procedure and then follow another one when they were completed. Some students struggled and the teacher tended to their questions. She did not answer the questions directly, but instead asked them some questions in return to help them along. At the end of the class, the teacher asked the class questions about the assignment, referring to the third objective which was to assess if the students gained an understanding about the components of a useful and accurate procedure.
III. The Learning Activities
This lesson is based around several structured activities that have the students creating structures, explaining themselves, following directions and giving feedback to their peers and teacher.The opening activity is a teacher led discussion about writing procedures. She engages the students by asking them what is important when writing a procedure. In order for a procedure to be considered 'good' it must be clear and easy to follow. Including a materials list, writing the procedure in numbered steps, providing illustrations and emphasizing important steps are the key elements to a straightforward procedure. The teacher goes on to explain the following steps in the activities. She makes sure to focus on the fact that the students will not be graded on how well they replicate the structure, but how well the wrote their own procedure and how well the evaluate the other team's procedure.
The second activity is the first phase of construction. The students are divided into groups of two. Then each pair is given a bag of Legos and asked to build a simple structure. As they build their structure they are encouraged to write their instructions as specific as possible. They must keep in mind the points made in the opening discussion about clear procedure writing. The pairs of students must use all the Legos provided in their bag, and they must keep their work secret from the other students. The end result of this activity is to build a structure and to provide very clear and specific instructions so that the next group can replicate it. The students are given a time limit of 20-30 minutes so that they will not go off-task by creating too elaborate of a structure. After this part is over, the finished structure is placed in a Ziploc bag and given to the teacher until it is needed at the end of the activity.
The third part of the activity is when each pair must try to replicate the structure made by the other team, using the procedure that was written earlier. In this second phase of construction, each pair of students receives an identical bag of Legos that was provided to the team whose procedure they are evaluating. After following the procedure they are provided, they students give the finished structure to the teacher to see if it is the same as the original. If the structures match on the first attempt the pair goes on to write an evaluation of the procedure they followed. They are encouraged to give constructive criticism to the first team. If the first attempt of making an identical structure fails the students are given one more try. If after the second try the structures still don’t match they are allowed to see and compare the original structure to their own. Then they may complete the evaluation.
The closing activity involves a teacher led discussion about what made each procedure successful, and what made it more difficult to follow. After this discussion the students are to help the teacher make a list of rules that are needed to produce a coherent procedure. The list will be given back to the students to keep as a reference for when they will write future procedures.struct
Here is an example of a structure that meets proficiency (Activity 2) and part of an evaluation (Activity 3) that meets proficiency.
As you can see this structure is depicted in drawing with specific regard to colors. This drawing of the structure does not go so far as to depict exactly what size Legos are used, except for at the tail of the giraffe. However, these details are provided in the step by step directions.
IV. Personal Reflections (Yours)
After watching the videos and reading through the various aspects of the assignment, I think the project is a great to provide students with an introduction on writing procedures. Legos are a material that most students are accustomed to using and most students can enjoy using them too. This assignment is more practical than having the students write a procedure on how to make something overly common such as a sandwich since each pair of students created their own unique Lego design. They had to specify colors, shapes, and positioning, which demands diagrams to be successful. Looking over the student artifacts, the group that exceeded the standard had a thorough, specific, and detailed procedure with plenty of diagrams. I do find it odd that this assignment is used for high school students though. I started writing laboratory procedures when I was in seventh grade. I think this assignment might be suitable for the middle school level and I think middle school students might be a bit more motivated to do it as well. -I believe that this lesson was a very effective way to teach how to write procedures. Trying to explain to science students in high school how to write a procedure is a task that demands attention to keeping the students engaged as well as keeping their mind on the goal. I think that the choice of using Legos was very effective because Legos are tangible, familiar and a safe object for students to work with. This way the students could focus on writing directions while not getting caught up with unknown lab equipment or being bored to tears with writing about how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. -
SBLD - Lego Activity F08